THE region is more prepared for the hurricane season, but there is still a lot of work to be done in specific areas. That’s according to Ronald Jackson, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).
He was speaking to The Barbados Advocate recently at the ninth Meeting of CDEMA’s Technical Advisory Committee at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael.
Jackson continued, “We are always better prepared for the hurricane season. As a region, we have improved and a good marker of that could be the fact that year over year, despite the ferocity of the events, we have seen less deaths and that is a sign of being better prepared. Being better prepared is not only a matter of the state, but the citizens learning and that is part of our job to get individuals to know their role and there is evidence that we are becoming better prepared.
“However, we are losing the battle in critical infrastructure and the strengthening of existing critical structures and where they fail, you have more losses. If your roads are weak, hospitals don’t stand up and a major problem in the region is that a lot of the infrastructure is old.”
He identified, “We also need to look at the ability to co-ordinate multiple actors from across the globe. There is still a challenge for national level players, resources in terms of the ability to move people/assets through the Caribbean; this still remains a challenge and that came out in Dominica. We are trying to find a solution towards that maybe a mix of investment in community capacity to respond and also to house items in areas where access will be a challenge and there are a lot of other areas we are discussing at the meeting.” (NB)